Comedy and the Politics of Representation

Description

This edited collection explores the representations of identity in comedy and interrogates the ways in which “humorous” constructions of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, class and disability raise serious issues about privilege, agency and oppression in popular culture. Should there be limits to free speech when humour is aimed at marginalised social groups? What are the limits of free speech when comedy pokes fun at those who hold social power? Can taboo joking be used towards politically progressive ends? Can stereotypes be mocked through their re-invocation? Comedy and the Politics of Representation: Mocking the Weak breaks new theoretical ground by demonstrating how the way people are represented mediates the triadic relationship set up in comedy between teller, audience and butt of the joke. By bringing together a selection of essays from international scholars, this study unpacks and examines the dynamic role that humour plays in making and remaking identity and power relations in culture and society. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Mocking the Weak? Contexts, Theories, Politics (Helen Davies, Sarah Ilott)....Pages 1-24 Taking Liberties? Free Speech, Multiculturalism and the Ethics of Satire (Anshuman A. Mondal)....Pages 25-41 Openness, Otherness, and Expertise: Uncertainty and Trust in Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (Rob Hawkes)....Pages 43-59 British Multiculturalism, Romantic Comedy, and the Lie of Social Unification (Sarah Ilott)....Pages 61-77 Parodying Racial Passing in Chappelle’s Show and Key & Peele (Janine Bradbury)....Pages 79-97 Blackness and Banal Whiteness: Abjection and Identity in the Italian Christmas Comedy (Alan O’Leary)....Pages 99-115 Sexual and National Difference in the High-Speed, Popular Surrealism of Tommy Handley and Ronald Frankau’s Double Acts, 1929–1936 (Neil Washbourne)....Pages 117-135 From Terry and June to Terry and Julian: June Whitfield and the British Suburban Sitcom (Rosie White)....Pages 137-152 Saintly Cretins and Ugly Buglys: Laughing at Victorian Disability in Hunderby (Helen Davies)....Pages 153-170 Standing Up to False Binaries in Humour and Autism: A Dialogue (Kate Fox)....Pages 171-188 Comedy and the Representation of the British Working Class from On the Buses to This Is England ’90 (Tracy Casling)....Pages 189-204 Theorising Post-Socialist Sitcom: Imported Form, Vernacular Humour and Taste Boundaries on the Global Periphery (Dejan Jontes, Andreja Trdina)....Pages 205-222 Smile, Hitler? Nazism and Comedy in Popular Culture (Jason Lee)....Pages 223-240 POTUS Stand-Up: The White House Correspondents’ Dinner (Sheryl Tuttle Ross)....Pages 241-256 Back Matter ....Pages 257-262